Letter: Ski jump memories

I remember as a 5-year-old (in 1950), my father, Stan Powers, taking my brother Michael (a 3-year-old) to the Ski Jump in Greenfield. He, my uncle, Myron Powers, and their friend Bill Bomley, were members of the Edelweiss Ski Club and may have been founding members with Chuck Warren. We would go to the ski jump and sidestep up the hill to pack the snow, then watch with awe skiers jump.

I also remember my feet were so cold I cried, in those days we had wool socks and leather boots and when they got wet, it was cold. We went to the jumps in Brattleboro also and I certainly remember Ralph Semb and others when they were jumping. Later, when we were older, we had a steep hill and made our own ski jump.

I remember going to the Edelweiss Ski Club meetings with my father and loving the ski posters from the famed ski areas of our West and the Swiss Alps and hearing about the exploits of Chuck Warren. I think sometimes there were ski films.

We also skied at Holland Farm. I cringe when I remember the rope tow, trying to get a grip with wet mittens that slipped on the rope! However, my brother Mike Powers, cousin Chip Powers and I all became avid skiers and loved the sport. We also loved the stories my father would tell about traveling Route 7 to Bromley and other Vermont ski areas in the pioneering days of skiing in the ’30s.

Good memories include the warming hut and eating a lunch my mother would pack and the hot cocoa! And tearing down the slope full speed and the sheer joy of it all.